CSR in forest industry – Case study of reporting and implementation of social responsibility in three international companies

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly important topic in forest industries, and other global companies, in recent years. Globalisation, faster information delivery and demand for sustainable development have set new challenges for global companies in their business operations. Also the importance of stakeholder relations, and pressure to become more transparent has increased in the forest industries. Three dimensions of corporate responsibility economic, environmental and social, are often included in the concept of CSR. Global companies mostly claim that these dimensions are equally important. This study analyses CSR in forest industry and has focus on reporting and implementation of social responsibility in three international companies. These case-companies are Stora Enso, SCA and Sappi, and they have different geographical base, product portfolios and therefore present interesting differences about forest industry strategy and CSR. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has created the most known and used reporting framework in CSR reporting. GRI Guidelines have made CSR reporting a uniform function, which can also be measured between companies and different sectors. GRI Guidelines have also made it possible to record and control CSR data in the companies. In recent years the use of GRI Guidelines has increased substantially. Typically CSR reporting on economic and environmental responsibility have been systematic in the global companies and often driven by legistlation and other regulations. However the social responsibility has been less regulated and more difficult to compare. Therefore it has previously been often less focused in the CSR reporting of the global companies. The implementation and use of GRI Guidelines have also increased dialogue on social responsibility issues and stakeholder management in global companies. This study analyses the use of GRI´s framework in the forest industry companies´ CSR reporting. This is a qualitative study and the disclosure of data is empricially analysed using content analysis. Content analysis has been selected as a method for this study because it makes it possible to use different sources of information. The data of this study consists of existing academic literature of CSR, sustainability reports of thecase-companies during 2005-2009, and the semi-structured interviews with company representatives. Different sources provide the possibility to look at specific subject from more than one viewpoint. The results of the study show that all case-companies have relatively common themes in their CSR disclosure, and the differences rise mainly from their product-portfolios, and geographic base. Social impacts to local communities, in the CSR of the companies, were mainly dominated by issues concerning creating wealth to the society and impacting communities through creation of work. The comparability of the CSR reporting, and especially social indicators increased significally from 2007 onwards in all case-companies. Even though the companies claim that three dimensions of CSR economic, environmental and social are equally important economic issues and profit improvement still seem to drive most of the operations in the global companies. Many issues that are covered by laws and regulations are still essentially presented as social responsibility in CSR. However often the unwelcome issues in companies like closing operations are covered just briefly, and without adequate explanation. To make social responsibility equally important in the CSR it would demand more emphasis from all the case-companies. A lot of emphasis should be put especially on the detail and extensiveness of the social reponsibility content in the CSR.

The phenomenon of oligarchy in Russia and its impact on Russian transition

Nowadays any analysis of Russian economy is incomplete without taking into account the phenomenon of oligarchy. Russian oligarchs appeared after the fall of the Soviet Union and are represented by wealthy businessmen who control a huge part of natural resources enterprises and have a big political influence. Oligarchs’ shares in some natural resources industries reach even 70-80%. Their role in Russian economy is big without any doubts, however there has been very little economic analysis done. The aim of this work is to examine Russian oligarchy on micro and macro levels, its role in Russia’s transition and the possible positive and negative outcomes from this phenomenon. For this purpose the work presents two theoretical models. The first part of this thesis work examines the role of oligarchs on micro level, concentrating on the question whether the oligarchs can be more productive owners than other types of owners. To answer the question this part presents a model based on the article “Are oligarchs productive? Theory and evidence” by Y. Gorodnichenko and Y. Grygorenko. It is followed by empirical test based on the works of S. Guriev and A. Rachinsky. The model predicts oligarchs to invest more in the productivity of their enterprises and have higher returns on capital, therefore be more productive owners. According to the empirical test, oligarchs were found to outperform other types of owners, however it is not defined whether the productivity gains offset losses in tax revenue. The second part of the work concentrates on the role of oligarchy on macro level. More precisely, it examines the assumption that the depression after 1998 crises in Russia was caused by the oligarchs’ behavior. This part presents a theoretical model based on the article “A macroeconomic model of Russian transition: The role of oligarchic property rights” by S. Braguinsky and R. Myerson, where the special type of property rights is introduced. After the 1998 crises oligarchs started to invest all their resources abroad to protect themselves from political risks, which resulted in the long depression phase. The macroeconomic model shows, that better protection of property rights (smaller political risk) or/and higher outside investing could reduce the depression. Taking into account this result, the government policy can change the oligarchs’ behavior to be more beneficial for the Russian economy and make the transition faster.

Two-dimensional fuzzy fault tree analysis for chlorine release from a chlor-alkali industry using expert elicitation

The hazards associated with major accident hazard (MAN) industries are fire, explosion and toxic gas releases. Of these, toxic gas release is the worst as it has the potential to cause extensive fatalities. Qualitative and quantitative hazard analyses are essential for the identification and quantification of these hazards related to chemical industries. Fault tree analysis (FTA) is an established technique in hazard identification. This technique has the advantage of being both qualitative and quantitative, if the probabilities and frequencies of the basic events are known. This paper outlines the estimation of the probability of release of chlorine from storage and filling facility of chlor-alkali industry using FTA. An attempt has also been made to arrive at the probability of chlorine release using expert elicitation and proven fuzzy logic technique for Indian conditions. Sensitivity analysis has been done to evaluate the percentage contribution of each basic event that could lead to chlorine release. Two-dimensional fuzzy fault tree analysis (TDFFTA) has been proposed for balancing the hesitation factor involved in expert elicitation. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Doping Transition Metal (Mn or Cu) Ions in Semiconductor Nanocrystals

Following growth doping strategy and using dopant oxides nanocrystals as dopant sources, we report here two different transition-metal ions doped in a variety of group II-VI semiconductor nanocrystals. Using manganese oxide and copper oxide nanocrystals as corresponding dopant sources, intense photoluminescence emission over a wide range of wavelength has been observed for different host nanocrystals. Interestingly, this single doping strategy is successful in providing such highly emissive nanocrystals considered here, in contrast with the literature reports that would suggest synthesis strategies to be highly specific to the particular dopant, host, or both. We investigate and discuss the possible mechanism of the doping process, supporting the migration of dopant ions from dopant oxide nanocrystals to host nanocrystals as the most likely scenario.

Late-industrial sawmill customers.

The methods of secondary wood processing are assumed to evolve over time and to affect the requirements set for the wood material and its suppliers. The study aimed at analysing the industrial operating modes applied by joinery and furniture manufacturers as sawnwood users. Industrial operating mode was defined as a pattern of important decisions and actions taken by a company which describes the company's level of adjustment in the late-industrial transition. A non-probabilistic sample of 127 companies was interviewed, including companies from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland. Fifty-two of the firms were furniture manufacturers and the other 75 were producing windows and doors. Variables related to business philosophy, production operations, and supplier choice criteria were measured and used as a basis for a customer typology; variables related to wood usage and perceived sawmill performance were measured to be used to profile the customer types. Factor analysis was used to determine the latent dimensions of industrial operating mode. Canonical correlations analysis was applied in developing the final base for classifying the observations. Non-hierarchical cluster analysis was employed to build a five-group typology of secondary wood processing firms; these ranged from traditional mass producers to late-industrial flexible manufacturers. There is a clear connection between the amount of late-industrial elements in a company and the share of special and customised sawnwood it uses. Those joinery or furniture manufacturers that are more late-industrial also are likely to use more component-type wood material and to appreciate customer-oriented technical precision. The results show that the change is towards the use of late-industrial sawnwood materials and late-industrial supplier relationships.

Analysis of edge delaminations in laminates through combined use of quasi-three-dimensional, eight-noded, two-noded and transition elements

The use of appropriate finite elements in different regions of a stressed solid can be expected to be economical in computing its stress response. This concept is exploited here in studying stresses near free edges in laminated coupons. The well known free edge problem of [0/90], symmetric laminate is considered to illustrate the application of the concept. The laminate is modelled as a combination of three distinct regions. Quasi-three-dimensional eight-noded quadrilateral isoparametric elements (Q3D8) are used at and near the free edge of the laminate and two-noded line elements (Q3D2) are used in the region away from the free edge. A transition element (Q3DT) provides a smooth inter-phase zone between the two regions. Significant reduction in the problem size and hence in the computational time and cost have been achieved at almost no loss of accuracy.

Evaluation of ductile-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) of aluminide bond coats by micro-tensile test method

A method has been suggested to accurately determine the DBTT of diffusion aluminide bond coats. Micro-tensile testing of free-standing coating samples has been carried out. The DBTT was determined based on the variation of plastic strain-to-fracture with temperature. The positive features of this method over the previously reported techniques are highlighted. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Khα1,2 hypersatellites of 3d transition metals and their photoexcitation energy dependence

Hollow atoms in which the K shell is empty while the outer shells are populated allow studying a variety of important and unusual properties of atoms. The diagram x-ray emission lines of such atoms, the K-h alpha(1,2) hypersatellites (HSs), were measured for the 3d transition metals, Z=23-30, with a high energy resolution using photoexcitation by monochromatized synchrotron radiation. Good agreement with ab initio relativistic multiconfigurational Dirac-Fock calculations was found. The measured HS intensity variation with the excitation energy yields accurate values for the excitation thresholds, excludes contributions from shake-up processes, and indicates domination near threshold of a nonshake process. The Z variation of the HS shifts from the diagram line K alpha(1,2), the K-h alpha(1)-K-h alpha(2) splitting, and the K-h alpha(1)/K-h alpha(2) intensity ratio, derived from the measurements, are also discussed with a particular emphasis on the QED corrections and Breit interaction.

K -shell diagram and hypersatellite spectra of 4d transition elements

The K-shell diagram (K alpha(1,2) and K beta(1,3)) and hypersatellite (HS) (K-h alpha(1,2)) spectra of Y, Zr, Mo, and Pd have been measured with high energy-resolution using photoexcitation by 90 keV synchrotron radiation. Comparison of the measured and ab initio calculated HS spectra demonstrates the importance of quantum electrodynamical (QED) effects for the HS spectra. Phenomenological fits of the measured spectra by Voigt functions yield accurate values for the shift of the HS from the diagram lines, the splitting of the HS lines, and their intensity ratio. Good agreement with theory was found for all quantities except for the intensity ratio, which is dominated by the intermediacy of the coupling of the angular momenta. The observed deviations imply that our current understanding of the variation of the coupling scheme from LS to jj across the periodic table may require some revision.

Direct current electrical resistivity of zinc borate glasses containing transition metal oxides

The resistivities of zinc borate glasses containing Fe2O3, V2O5, and Fe2O3 + V2O5 have been measured as a function of composition and temperature. The values of resistivity and activation energy decrease as the transition metal oxide content is increased. The conductivities of the glasses containing Fe2O3 + V2O5 are more than the sum of those of the glasses containing only Fe2O3 or V2O5 (i.e. the activation energies are less than the sum of those in the glasses containing only Fe2O3 or V2O5). The results are discussed in terms of existing theories.